A friend gave me the first book years ago and I dismissed it at the time because I don't usually like reading fantasy. However, when this show got started I began reading Amazon reviews of the books and many of them say that it's not your typical kind of fantasy story.

I'm about 30 pages into the first book and it's going well. Something was weird about the prologue that turned me off...I can't quite put my finger on it but it was as if he was trying to use as few words as possible to describe things, and consequently the sentences seemed jammed together.

The one thing to be aware of is that there are a lot of characters to keep track of. It's not as bad as reading Russian literature, but it's something to keep in mind if you're thinking about reading the books. The best thing to do is use a big notecard as a bookmark and write down the character names, specifically the ones that the chapters are named after.

I do have one complaint about last night (and, really, most of the series so far): Valyarian steel. First of all, it's fucking rare, and secondly, it's a big thing that the Great Houses have a signature weapon. Ned Stark has used Ice all of once and, if I remember correctly, was supposed to be using it in his fight with Jaime.

@RenThing: As you say It's rare, usually an heirloom of the Great Houses. As a practicality I don't think Ned would be lugging Ice (a massive two-hander) around day to day, and especially not going semi-clandestinely to see one of Robert's bastards. I can't recall if Ned has it with him in the books, you may be right there.

As for the episode: It was my favorite thus far. Lysa and little Robert were creepy as fucking hell. The Mountain and the Hound was epic. And I liked the off-book scene of Renly and Loras, early hints at Renly's future ambitions. Though were the book was mostly subtle about their relationship the show was like a sledgehammer.

@RenThing Actually Jamie and Ned never cross swords in the books. Ned's horse falls in that scene and he breaks his leg, Jamie doesn't draw his sword at all and the gold cloaks kill Ned's men, with Jory last to go down. But I didn't mind the change for the show and like how they set up Jory and Jamie in the previous ep and then had Jamie be the one to kill him.

this was by far the best episode, though both sex scenes were not in the book and unnecessary, as was the general reveal of Renly's relationship with Loras, which shouldn't have been shown until mid-way through season 2.

In essence, Renly invites Loras to spend the night in his tent ("I think I have forgotten how to pray; Ser Loras, stay and remind me" or something similar), and after Renly dies, Loras is said to go on a rampage, killing several knights in the process. And then, Loras's sister is married to Renly, but remains a virgin, something commented on by Varys, I believe.

@Paladine I think that's pretty much it. I think Breane might also make some observations that the two of them are very close (as she was in love with Renly if I'm not mistaken) but there weren't any love scenes between Renly and Loras in the books.

@Greasemonkey: As Ren and Paladine said. I think the most explicitly it's ever stated is a point where Jaime tells Loras that he'll stick his sword someplace even Renly never found. Renly also calls his personal guard the Rainbow Guard, it's a bit meta, but kinda hilarious.

Nope. If the SoIF page on Tv Tropes is to be believed it's just that Renly likes bright colours.

I only just caught up with the series today. Being about half way through Feast for Crows it's interesting to see what they added in and inserted earlier such as the stuff about the Greyjoys, although I could be mis-remembering.

@Ren: I imagine from a writer's standpoint it was all of the above, a little meta hint towards Renly's sexuality, but in Westeros it is a combination of Renly liking bright colors and wanting his guard contrasting with the stark white of the Kingsguard. Also as you said, it's likely also a nod towards the prism of the seven.

@Darkest, yeah they're sort of beating us over the head with Theon's story. It was good to set it up with Tyrion, but the bit with Ros was just to add a sex scene, and I've heard that the producers just like the actress who plays Ros so we'll be seeing more of her, which again, I sort of have a problem a problem with when it's tough enough to give so many characters screen time and things need to be cut.